All Posts by Cathy Vandewater

"Complete a pre-MBA course at Oxford Business School, become
proficient at a musical instrument or learn another language."
According to Tracey Spicer during her recent TED talk, that's what
women could do with the 3,276 hours they currently spend grooming
for work. Oh, and if they groom too much, they might need those
extra hours for a second job: "If a woman doubles her grooming
time, her earnings decrease on average 3.4 per cent," Sp
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The future is officially here: the year is 2013, and computers can
now teach you how to be a warm, engaging human. Us+, a new art
project-slash-app, seeks to take the bugs out of IRL communication.
Emotionally tone-deaf? Whiny and rambling? Passive aggressive? Us+
knows all your issues, and, unlike your best friend or your
interviewer, isn't afraid to tell you. The revolutionary new
program works with Google+, monitoring your conversations
(including the more sophisticated aspects of...
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Five women, all embarking on law careers at Debevoise &
Plimpton, reflected on "ambition, leadership and success" for the
September 9th, 2001 issue of the New York Times. Unsurprisingly,
they sounded confident, modern, full of energy, and boundlessly
optimistic about their career possibilities as women in a male
dominated field-especially at the high levels they aspired to. That
was 12 years ago. Has big law changed? Has "lean in" had an effect
on the way wo
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Sometimes, the most sexist and oppressive environments for women
are created by, well, other women. Though this memo from a women's
committee that recently circulated a top law firm does not enforce
rules against vests or wearing a color other than pink on
Wednesdays, its insulting level of micromanagement feels just as
extreme. A few choice excerpts: -"Wear a suit, not your party
outfit" -"Don't dress like a mortician; if wearing a black suit,
wear something bright." -"Make sure you...
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It's the end of an era: publisher Conde Nast is ending its
internship program in 2014, making this batch of (unpaid) interns
its last. The change has come about after two former interns sued
the publisher in June 2013, but ironically, it seems that those
most upset by the end of the program are the prospective interns
themselves. Just goes to show how programs like this can continue
to exist while flouting labor laws: there is an endless supply of
impressionable, eager-to-break-in 18...
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Ready to feel great about your professional etiquette? Then read
this follow up letter from University of Wisconsin student to a
recruiter he met at a networking event. And keep in mind, he's
seeking employment: "Subject: Question Hey REDACTED, We talked
a couple weeks back at the UW-Milwaukee accounting night. (I was
the one looking for equity research positions and had a zit on my
lip that could have passed for a cold sore. Lol. Whew. It was not.
You're probably like, "uh.. What?"...
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You know it's key for your interviewer to like you, but how do you
win them over? If you've ever acted super friendly only to see if
fall flat, or tried being ultra-confident to a chilly reception,
you'll know that one approach never fits all. The key may be to
come to your interview adaptable--observant and responsive to your
interviewer's cues, and ready to act (or react) accordingly. Here
are a few ways you can get on their wavelength: 1. Repeat what you
hear Or, at least their last...
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You've probably seen the viral video of Marina Schifrin, a video
editor at Taiwan's Next Media Animation, interpretive dancing her
way out of a job. Still at the office at 4:30am (!!), she made a
movie of herself dancing around the office to Kanye West's "Gone"
while subtitles documented her grievances. Among them? That her
boss was more concerned with quantity than quality, that her
deadlines and workload were unreasonable, and that "views" for the
videos were all the compa
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Could "faulty" thinking be sabotaging your climb up the career
ladder? The narrative voiceover your mind plays for you can color
everything, if you let it--at least that's the reasoning behind the
book Change Your Thinking, and something called "cognitive behavior
therapy," an evidence-based treatment method used by clinical
psychologists worldwide to treat anxiety, phobias, and yes,
self-defeating thought patterns that can hold you back in life and
at work. Many people consider success a...
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So yet another article/listicle/infographic has come out railing
against the collective naivete and entitlement of Generation Y. But
Wait Why, via Huffington Post, illustrates in a comic why
Generation Y is unhappy (hint: it's because of all the naivete and
entitlement). But while the logic is sound (high expectations +
tough reality=dissatisfaction), the storyline of the clueless,
narcissistic 20-something leaves out some key factors, like
cultural changes, marketplace changes, and the...
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